Hi! My name is Sofia. I’m seven years old. If you’re hearing this, please calm down. This is your dream, but you picked up this message during the day. I know you’re a kid too, promise me you’ll never watch another video from a YouTuber named Amanda’s-Toys2875394.
My iPad shed a dim blue light throughout my room, so I buried myself further into my blankets and pillows to prevent the light from making its way to the crack in her door, alerting my parents, and bringing them into my room to make me go to sleep. If they came in now, they could have saved their own life, and me. Even though it seemed that I have watched every Disney, Shopkins, and My Little Pony toy video on youtube, it was only 9:34pm, but for me, it was both very late, but also time for more videos. After refreshing the page, a new suggested channel “Amanda’s-Toys2875394”. When I visited that page, it only had ten videos, all with bright thumbnails, but only the first four had appropriate names, after those, the names became odd series of numbers. With a small shrug I clicked on the first video, and as the blue light dimmed in her room, and began a yellowish light for the video, it seemed as if something else in the room’s spirit dimmed too, but no one would be able to perceive it. I wish I never clicked on that stupid video, I miss my home.
After viewing “Alice makes cupcake lipstick with Shopkins”, I felt very strange. It had everything I could want in a video, but it left me feeling tired, as if I just did more than watch a video. My brain felt like I had spent hours reading and processing, and learning. It left me yearning for more. I watched another titled video, this time it was named “Niki and Sasha rescue Elsa from the chocolate river”. It was fine, again, but the video wore out my brain even more, as if I was reading and listening to thousands of words every second. When I passed out one thing was certain. These videos would make an addict out of me.
That night my dream was terrifying. It was lucid, and I was completely aware she was dreaming, but I couldn’t wake up or do anything important. I just walked around through the darkness surrounding me on all sides. “Are you happy? You don’t seem very happy…” I heard in a small girls voice behind me. As I whipped around, no one was there, but I began to notice more whispers slowly growing louder and louder. “You’re not happy.” “Join us.” “Do you have a mommy?” They kept growing louder and louder until eventually I woke up in a cold sweat.
After I ate breakfast and got prepared for school, I decided to watch more of Amanda’s videos. I mean, there were only eight more to watch, and for some reason she seemed super alluring to me. It was really stupid, for me to return. It’s not like I could go be with mommy, or daddy. I’m an only child, and my parents never seem to want to be with me, they usually would just hand me my iPad, and tell me to go entertain myself, and eventually they stopped only using it to distract me, and it just became my full time parent.
I chose the third titled episode, which was named “Magic Pony nail polish party” and began watching. At first it seemed normal, but about halfway through, Amanda’s fake childish voice lowered into the voice of a teenager, or a very young adult. “Do you have a mommy? Or do you have a daddy?”, The voice asked in an odd manner, her voice drawing me in and beginning to hypnotize me, “Or do you have no one at all?”. Suddenly I was aware of how alone I am. I only see my real parents at dinner time, and some nights I only see one parent or another.
“It’s ok, I’m your mommy now.” Amanda said again in her calming voice, drawing me back out of myself obsessed spiral, and noticed the video again. The Pony dolls were still making nail polish together, and the feed never stopped at all. For a few seconds I thought that perhaps the entire family thing was imagined, and if I simply rewound, It wouldn’t be there anymore, but some invisible force kept me from trying.
For some stupid reason, the entire school day, I just wanted to go home and watch that stupid fourth video.